Terms & NamesTerms & NamesMAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA WHY IT MATTERS NOWWHY IT MATTERS NOW

•Eleanor Roosevelt•Works ProgressAdministration(WPA)

•National YouthAdministration

•Wagner Act•Social Security Act

The Second New Dealincluded new programsto extend federal aid andstimulate the nation’seconomy.

Second New Deal programscontinue to assist homebuyers,farmers, workers, and the elderlyin the 2000s.

The New Deal 495

One American's Story

The Second NewDeal Takes Hold

Dorothea Lange was a photographer who documented Americanlife during the Great Depression and the era of the New Deal. Langespent considerable time getting to know her subjects—destitutemigrant workers—before she and her assistant set up their cameras.

A PERSONAL VOICE DOROTHEA LANGE

“ So often it’s just sticking around and remainingthere, not swooping in and swooping out in a cloudof dust. . . . We found our way in . . . not too faraway from the people we were working with. . . .The people who are garrulous and wear their hearton their sleeve and tell you everything, that’s onekind of person. But the fellow who’s hiding behinda tree and hoping you don’t see him, is the fellowthat you’d better find out why.”

—quoted in Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange

Lange also believed that her distinct limp, the result of a childhood case ofpolio, worked to her advantage. Seeing that Lange, too, had suffered, people werekind to her and more at ease.

Much of Lange’s work was funded by federal agencies, such as the FarmSecurity Administration, which was established to alleviate rural poverty. Herphotographs of migrant workers helped draw attention to the desperate condi-tions in rural America and helped to underscore the need for direct relief.

The Second Hundred DaysBy 1935, the Roosevelt administration was seeking ways to build on the programsestablished during the Hundred Days. Although the economy had improved dur-ing FDR’s first two years in office, the gains were not as great as he had expected.Unemployment remained high despite government work programs, and produc-tion still lagged behind the levels of the 1920s.

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Dorothea Langetaking photo-graphs on theTexas plainsin 1934.

Nevertheless, the New Deal enjoyed widespreadpopularity, and President Roosevelt launched a secondburst of activity, often called the Second New Deal orthe Second Hundred Days. During this phase, the pres-ident called on Congress to provide more extensiverelief for both farmers and workers.

The president was prodded in this direction by hiswife, Eleanor Roosevelt, a social reformer who com-bined her deep humanitarian impulses with great politi-cal skills. Eleanor Roosevelt traveled the country, observ-ing social conditions and reminding the president aboutthe suffering of the nation’s people. She also urged himto appoint women to government positions.

REELECTING FDR The Second New Deal was underway by the time of the 1936 presidential election. TheRepublicans nominated Alfred Landon, the governor ofKansas, while the Democrats, of course, nominatedPresident Roosevelt for a second term. The electionresulted in an overwhelming victory for the Democrats,who won the presidency and large majorities in bothhouses. The election marked the first time that most

African Americans had voted Democratic rather than Republican, and the firsttime that labor unions gave united support to a presidential candidate. The 1936election was a vote of confidence in FDR and the New Deal.

Helping FarmersIn the mid-1930s, two of every five farms in the United States were mortgaged,and thousands of small farmers lost their farms. The novelist John Steinbeckdescribed the experience of one tenant farmer and his family.

A PERSONAL VOICE JOHN STEINBECK

“ Across the dooryard the tractor cut, and thehard, foot-beaten ground was seeded field, andthe tractor cut through again; the uncut spacewas ten feet wide. And back he came. The ironguard bit into the house-corner, crumbled thewall, and wrenched the little house from its foun-dation so that it fell sideways, crushed like a bug.. . . The tractor cut a straight line on, and the airand the ground vibrated with its thunder. The ten-ant man stared after it, his rifle in his hand. Hiswife was beside him, and the quiet childrenbehind. And all of them stared after the tractor.”

—The Grapes of Wrath

FOCUSING ON FARMS When the Supreme Court struck down the AAA early in1936, Congress passed another law to replace it: the Soil Conservation andDomestic Allotment Act. This act paid farmers for cutting production of soil-depleting crops and rewarded farmers for practicing good soil conservation meth-ods. Two years later, in 1938, Congress approved a second AgriculturalAdjustment Act that brought back many features of the first AAA. The secondAAA did not include a processing tax to pay for farm subsidies, a provision of thefirst AAA that the Supreme Court had declared unconstitutional.

496 CHAPTER 15

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Eleanor Rooseveltvisits a children’shospital in 1937.

A

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

ASummarizing

Why didRoosevelt launchthe SecondHundred Days?

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A posterpromotes themovie adaption ofJohn Steinbeck’snovel The Grapesof Wrath.

The New Deal 497

History ThroughHistory Through

“Migrant Mother” became one of themost recognizable symbols of theDepression and perhaps the strongestargument in support of New Dealrelief programs. Roy Stryker, whohired Lange to document the harshliving conditions of the time,described the mother: “She has allthe suffering of mankind in her, butall the perseverance too. A restraintand a strange courage.”

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“MIGRANT MOTHER” (1936),DOROTHEA LANGE

In February 1936, Dorothea Lange visited a camp in Nipomo, California,where some 2,500 destitute pea pickers lived in tents or, like this mother of seven children, in lean-tos.Lange talked briefly to the woman andthen took five pictures, successively moving closer to her subjects and directing more emphasis on the mother. The last photo, “Migrant Mother” (at right), was published in theSan Francisco News March 10, 1936.

Lange reflected upon her assignment. “I saw and approachedthe hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. . . .She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables fromthe surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. Shehad just sold the tires from her car to buy food.”

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SKILLBUILDER Interpreting Visual Sources1. What might the woman be thinking about?

Why do you think so?2. Why do you think “Migrant Mother” was effective in

persuading people to support FDR’s relief programs?

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R23.

The Second New Deal also attempted to help sharecroppers, migrant workers,and many other poor farmers. The Resettlement Administration, created by exec-utive order in 1935, provided monetary loans to small farmers to buy land. In1937, the agency was replaced by the Farm Security Administration (FSA), whichloaned more than $1 billion to help tenant farmers become landholders andestablished camps for migrant farm workers, who had traditionally lived insqualid housing.

The FSA hired photographers such as Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, WalkerEvans, Arthur Rothstein, and Carl Mydans to take many pictures of rural townsand farms and their inhabitants. The agency used their photographs to create apictorial record of the difficult situation in rural America.

Roosevelt Extends ReliefAs part of the Second New Deal, the Roosevelt administration and Congress setup a series of programs to help youths, professionals, and other workers. One ofthe largest was the Works Progress Administration (WPA), headed by HarryHopkins, the former chief of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration.

The WPA set out to create as many jobs as possible as quickly as possible.Between 1935 and 1943, it spent $11 billion to give jobs to more than 8 millionworkers, most of them unskilled. These workers built 850 airports throughout thecountry, constructed or repaired 651,000 miles of roads and streets, and put upmore than 125,000 public buildings. Women workers in sewing groups made 300million garments for the needy. Although criticized by some as a make-work pro-ject, the WPA produced public works of lasting value to the nation and gave work-ing people a sense of hope and purpose. As one man recalled, “It was really great.You worked, you got a paycheck and you had some dignity. Even when a manraked leaves, he got paid, he had some dignity.”

In addition, the WPA employed many professionals who wrote guides tocities, collected historical slave narratives, painted murals on the walls of schools

This photographby MargaretBourke-Whiteshows peoplewaiting for food ina Kentucky breadline in 1937.

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C

and other public buildings, and performedin theater troupes around the country. Atthe urging of Eleanor Roosevelt, the WPAmade special efforts to help women, minori-ties, and young people.

Another program, the National YouthAdministration (NYA), was created specif-ically to provide education, jobs, counseling,and recreation for young people. The NYAprovided student aid to high school, college,and graduate students. In exchange, stu-dents worked in part-time positions at theirschools. One participant later described herexperience.

A PERSONAL VOICE HELEN FARMER

“ I lugged . . . drafts and reams of paperhome, night after night. . . . Sometimes Ityped almost all night and had to deliver it to school the next morning. . . . This was agood program. It got necessary work done. It gave teenagers a chance to work forpay. Mine bought me clothes and shoes, school supplies, some movies and madmoney. Candy bars, and big pickles out of a barrel. It gave my mother relief from mynecessary demands for money.”

—quoted in The Great Depression

For graduates unable to find jobs, or youth who had dropped out of school,the NYA provided part-time jobs, such as working on highways, parks, and thegrounds of public buildings.

Improving Labor and Other ReformsIn a speech to Congress in January 1935, the president declared, “When a man isconvalescing from an illness, wisdom dictates not only cure of the symptoms butalso removal of their cause.” During the Second New Deal, Roosevelt, with thehelp of Congress, brought about important reforms in the areas of labor relationsand economic security for retired workers. (See the chart on page 500.)

IMPROVING LABOR CONDITIONS In 1935, the Supreme Court declared theNIRA unconstitutional, citing that the federal government had violated legislativeauthority reserved for individual states. One of the first reforms of the Second NewDeal was passage of the National Labor Relations Act. More commonly called theWagner Act, after its sponsor, Senator Robert F. Wagner of New York, the actreestablished the NIRA provision of collective bargaining. The federal governmentagain protected the right of workers to join unions and engage in collective bar-gaining with employers.

The Wagner Act also prohibited unfair labor practices such as threatening work-ers, firing union members, and interfering with union organizing. The act set up theNational Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hear testimony about unfair practices andto hold elections to find out if workers wanted union representation.

In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which set maximumhours at 44 hours per week, decreasing to 40 hours after two years. It also set min-imum wages at 25 cents an hour, increasing to 40 cents an hour by 1945. In addi-tion, the act set rules for the employment of workers under 16 and banned haz-ardous work for those under 18.

The New Deal 499

B

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The NYA helpedyoung people,such as thisdental assistant(third from left),receive trainingand jobopportunities.

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

BEvaluating

Do you thinkwork programs likethe WPA were avalid use offederal money?Why or why not?

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

C

AnalyzingIssues

Why was theWagner Actsignificant?

500 CHAPTER 15

EMPLOYMENT PROJECTS PURPOSE1933 Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Provided jobs for single males on

conservation projects.

1933 Federal Emergency Relief Administration Helped states to provide aid for the (FERA) unemployed.

1933 Public Works Administration (PWA) Created jobs on government projects.

1933 Civil Works Administration (CWA) Provided work in federal jobs.

1935 Works Progress Administration (WPA) Quickly created as many jobs as possible—from construction jobs to positions in symphony orchestras.

1935 National Youth Administration (NYA) Provided job training for unemployed young people and part-time jobs for needy students.

BUSINESS ASSISTANCE AND REFORM1933 Emergency Banking Relief Act (EBRA) Banks were inspected by Treasury Department

and those stable could reopen.

1933 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Protected bank deposits up to $5,000. (Today, (FDIC) accounts are protected up to $100,000.)

1933 National Recovery Administration (NRA) Established codes of fair competition.

1934 Securities and Exchange Commission Supervised the stock market and eliminated(SEC) dishonest practices.

1935 Banking Act of 1935 Created seven-member board to regulate the nation’smoney supply and the interest rates on loans.

1938 Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDC) Required manufacturers to list ingredients in foods, drugs, and cosmetic products.

FARM RELIEF AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT1933 Agricultural Adjustment Administration Aided farmers and regulated crop

(AAA) production.1933 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Developed the resources of the

Tennessee Valley.1935 Rural Electrification Administration (REA) Provided affordable electricity for

isolated rural areas.

HOUSING1933 Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC) Loaned money at low interest to

homeowners who could not meet mortgage payments.

1934 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Insured loans for building and repairing homes.

1937 United States Housing Authority (USHA) Provided federal loans for low-cost public housing.

LABOR RELATIONS1935 National Labor Relations Board Defined unfair labor practices and established the

(Wagner Act) National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to settle disputes between employers and employees.

1938 Fair Labor Standards Act Established a minimum hourly wage and a maximum number of hours in the workweek for the entire country. Set rules for the employment of workers under 16 and banned hazardous factory work for those under 18.

RETIREMENT1935 Social Security Administration Provided a pension for retired workers and their

spouses and aided people with disabilities.

New Deal Programs

The New Deal 501

THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT One of the most important achievements of theNew Deal was creating the Social Security system. The Social Security Act,passed in 1935, was created by a committee chaired by Secretary of Labor FrancesPerkins. The act had three major parts:

• Old-age insurance for retirees 65 or older and their spouses. The insurance was asupplemental retirement plan. Half of the funds came from the worker andhalf from the employer. Although some groups were excluded from the sys-tem, it helped to make retirement comfortable for millions of people.

• Unemployment compensation system. The unemployment system was fundedby a federal tax on employers. It was administered at the state level. The ini-tial payments ranged from $15 to $18 per week.

• Aid to families with dependent children and the disabled. The aid was paid forby federal funds made available to the states.

Although the Social Security Act was not a total pension system or a completewelfare system, it did provide substantial benefits to millions of Americans.

EXPANDING AND REGULATING UTILITIES The Second New Deal also includ-ed laws to promote rural electrification and to regulate public utilities. In 1935,only 12.6 percent of American farms had electricity. Roosevelt established underexecutive order the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), which financed andworked with electrical cooperatives to bring electricity to isolated areas. By 1945,48 percent of America’s farms and rural homes had electricity. That figure rose to90 percent by 1949.

The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 took aim at financial cor-ruption in the public utility industry. It outlawed the ownership of utilities bymultiple holding companies—a practice known as the pyramiding of holdingcompanies. Lobbyists for the holding companies fought the law fiercely, and itproved extremely difficult to enforce.

As the New Deal struggled to help farmers and other workers overcome theGreat Depression, it assisted many different groups in the nation, includingwomen, African Americans, and Native Americans.

D

Second New DealGroup How Helped

MAIN IDEAMAIN IDEA

D

DrawingConclusions

Whom didSocial Securityhelp?

MAIN IDEA2. TAKING NOTES

Create a chart similar to the onebelow to show how groups such asfarmers, the unemployed, youth,and retirees were helped by SecondNew Deal programs.

Which group do you think benefitedthe most from the Second NewDeal? Explain.

CRITICAL THINKING3. EVALUATING DECISIONS

Why might the Social Security Act be considered the most importantachievement of the New Deal? Think About:

• the types of relief needed in the1930s

• alternatives to governmentassistance to the elderly, theunemployed, and the disabled

• the scope of the act

4. INTERPRETING VISUAL SOURCESMany WPA posters were created topromote New Deal programs—in this case the Rural ElectrificationAdministration. How does thisposter’s simplistic design conveythe program’s goal?

•Eleanor Roosevelt•Works ProgressAdministration (WPA)

•National YouthAdministration

•Wagner Act•Social Security Act

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance.

502 CHAPTER 15

NLRB v. JONES AND LAUGHLIN STEEL CORP. (1937)

ORIGINS OF THE CASE In 1936, the Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation was chargedwith intimidating union organizers and firing several union members. The NationalLabor Relations Board (NLRB) found the company guilty of “unfair labor practices” andordered it to rehire the workers with back pay.

THE RULING The Supreme Court ruled that Congress had the power to regulate labor rela-tions and confirmed the authority of the NLRB.

LEGAL REASONINGIn the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, or Wagner Act, Congress claimedthat its authority to regulate labor relations came from the commerce clauseof the Constitution. Jones and Laughlin Steel argued that its manufacturingbusiness did not involve interstate commerce—it operated a plant and hiredpeople locally.

The Court disagreed. Although production itself may occur within onestate, it said, production is a part of the interstate “flow of commerce.” Iflabor unrest at a steel mill would create “burdens and obstructions” to inter-state commerce, then Congress has the power to preventlabor unrest at the steel mill.

The Court also explained that the act went “no furtherthan to safeguard the right of employees to self-organizationand to select representatives . . . for collective bargaining.”Departing from earlier decisions, the Court affirmed thatthese are “fundamental” rights.

“ Long ago we . . . said . . . that a single employee was helpless in dealing with an employer; that he wasdependent . . . on his daily wage for the maintenance ofhimself and family; that, if the employer refused to payhim the wages that he thought fair,he was . . . unable to leave theemploy and resist arbitrary andunfair treatment; that union wasessential to give laborers opportu-nity to deal on an equality withtheir employer.’’

As a result, the Wagner Actwas allowed to stand. SCHECHTER POULTRY CORP. v.

UNITED STATES (1935)The Court struck down the National IndustrialRecovery Act, a key piece of New Deal legislation.

RELATED CASES

U.S. CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 1, SECTION 8(COMMERCE CLAUSE)

“The Congress shall have Power . . . To regulateCommerce with foreign Nations and among the sever-al States.”

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT (1935)“The term ‘affecting commerce’ means . . . tending tolead to a labor dispute burdening or obstructing com-merce or the free flow of commerce.”

“It shall be an unfair labor practice for an employer . . .to interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in theexercise of the rights [to organize unions].”

LEGISLATION

LEGAL SOURCES

Chief Justice CharlesEvans Hughes

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WHY IT MATTEREDThe 1935 Wagner Act was one of the most importantpieces of New Deal legislation. Conservative justiceson the Supreme Court, however, thought New Deallegislation increased the power of the federal govern-ment beyond what the Constitution allowed. By thetime the Jones and Laughlin case reached the Court in1937, the Court had already struck down numerousNew Deal laws. It appeared to many as if the WagnerAct was doomed.

In February 1937, Roosevelt announced a plan toappoint enough justices to build a Court majority infavor of the New Deal. Critics immediately accusedRoosevelt of trying to pack the Supreme Court, thuscrippling the Constitution’s system of checks and bal-ances.

Two months later, the Court delivered its opinionin Jones and Laughlin and at about the same timeupheld other New Deal legislation as well. Most histo-rians agree that the Court’s switch was not a responseto Roosevelt’s “Court-packing” plan, which alreadyseemed destined for failure. Nevertheless, the decisionresolved a potential crisis.

HISTORICAL IMPACTThe protection that labor unions gained by theWagner Act helped them to grow quickly. Union mem-bership among non-farm workers grew from around12 percent in 1930 to around 31 percent by 1950. Thisincrease helped improve the economic standing ofmany working-class Americans in the years followingWorld War II.

Most significantly, Jones and Laughlin greatly broad-ened Congress’s power. Previously, neither the federalnor the state governments were thought to have suffi-cient power to control the large corporations and hold-ing companies doing business in many states. Now, farbeyond the power to regulate interstate commerce,Congress had the power to regulate anything “essentialor appropriate” to that function. For example, federallaws barring discrimination in hotels and restaurantsrest on the Court’s allowing Congress to decide what isan “essential or appropriate” subject of regulation.

More recently, the Court has placed tighter limitson Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.In United States v. Lopez (1995), the Court struckdown a law that banned people from having hand-guns near a school. The Court said Congress was notjustified in basing this law on its power to regulateinterstate commerce.

The New Deal 503

Choosing to work despitethe strike, a storekeeperat the Jones and LaughlinSteel Corporation tries topass through picket lines.

THINKING CRITICALLYTHINKING CRITICALLY

CONNECT TO HISTORY1. Developing Historical Perspective Lawyers for Jones

and Laughlin said that the Wagner Act violated the TenthAmendment. Chief Justice Hughes said that since the actfell within the scope of the commerce clause, the TenthAmendment did not apply. Read the Tenth Amendmentand then write a paragraph defending Hughes’s position.

SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R11.

CONNECT TO TODAY2.

Visit the links for Historic Decisions of the Supreme Courtand read the opening sections of United States v. Lopez.There, Chief Justice Rehnquist offers a summary of theCourt’s interpretation of the commerce clause over theyears. Summarize in your own words Rehnquist’s descrip-tion of the current meaning of the commerce clause.

IINTERNET ACTIVITY CLASSZONE.COM

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